Getting Started with MetaMatrix Dimension

Dimension Basics
MetaMatrix Dev Central Dimension Topics

What is Dimension?

> MetaMatrix Dimension has few moving parts:

> - MetaMatrix Dimension Designer, an Eclipse-based graphical modeling tool for integrating multiple data sources to produce XML Views and Web services that expose those business views.
> - MetaMatrix Web Services Application, which processes SOAP requests to your designed Web services. This consists of the MetaMatrix query engine, a Web services framework, and the integration definitions required to define an executable Web service, packaged in a standard WAR file. The WAR file can be deployed to any standard Web server to expose your MetaMatrix data services to consuming applications.

> MetaMatrix Dimension Designer is a tool to help you quickly create the Web services you need to bridge the gap between your existing relational and file-based data sources and the new XML data structures that represent how you plan to exchange data with new applications. With MetaMatrix Dimension Designer, not only do you create the mappings from source to target using a visual tool, but you also can resolve semantic differences and use declarative interfaces to integrate, aggregate, and transform the data on its way from source to target format. You can create virtual data structures to any level of abstraction that helps you define the right modular data flows. When you take advantage of this powerful set of tools, data services are defined quickly and, the resulting Web services perform to enterprise standards, are easy to maintain and reuse, and all the valuable work and related metadata are saved for later reference. MetaMatrix Dimension Designer is flexible enough to support a variety of project scenarios and work styles. It is an Eclipse-based application.

Why Use Dimension?

> MetaMatrix Dimension Designer is a tool to help you quickly create the Web services you need to bridge the gap between your existing relational and file-based data sources and the new XML data structures that represent how you plan to exchange data with new applications. With MetaMatrix Dimension Designer, not only do you create the mappings from source to target using a visual tool, but you also can resolve semantic differences and use declarative interfaces to integrate, aggregate, and transform the data on its way from source to target format. You can create virtual data structures to any level of abstraction that helps you define the right modular data flows. When you take advantage of this powerful set of tools, data services are defined quickly and, the resulting Web services perform to enterprise standards, are easy to maintain and reuse, and all the valuable work and related metadata are saved for later reference. MetaMatrix Dimension Designer is flexible enough to support a variety of project scenarios and work styles.

Dimension's Visual Layout

Dimension's visual layout is comprised of four main views or components shown in the figure below.

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